The Hills of Homicide

Book excerpt: FROM AMERICA’S STORYTELLER: A TREASURY OF HIS GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES Here is a collection of Louis L’Amour detective stories—vivid tales as memorable and exciting as his beloved frontier fiction. Each story is personally selected and introduced by the author. In the dark alleys of the pulsing cities and the savage criminal wildernesses, Louis L’Amour introduces a new brand of characters: men like Kip Morgan, the ex-fighter turned detective who is tough enough to bounce a bouncer yet has more up his sleeve than sheer muscle; Joe Ragan, the dedicated career cop who fears nothing in the pursuit of justice; and women whose soft laughter covers their underlying cruelty. These are fast-moving stories of brawls where if a man goes down and doesn’t get up fast enough he’s through, of flashing knives that whisper death, of guns that blaze their fatal fire through the blackest nights.